Friday, June 4, 2010

Common Loons

I have always associated Loons with Northern lakes. I have seen and heard loons in Canada, Alaska, Maine, Northern Michigan, Northern Wisconsin and in the New York Adirondaks. So it came as a surprise on 4/1/10, when I was walking around Bauman Park in Cherry Valley, IL, that a Loon was in the lake. This is a very busy Park and Loons generally like solitude.  Over two weeks later (4/17/10) after I returned from a trip to London, it was still there (assuming it was the same Loon). I thought how cool it would be for a pair of Loons to nest in Cherry Valley, but a couple of days later there was no sign of it, in all probability it continued its migration North after scouting out Bauman Park as a possible nesting area, and rejecting it. Too bad for us Northern Illinoians.

The top picture below was the Loon at Bauman Park on 4/17/10. The bottom photo was taken at Seney Wildlife Refuge in the Upper Pininsula of Michigan (5/27/07).
An unusual sight of a Common Loon checking out the lake at Bauman Park, Cherry Valley, IL; 4/17/10.
A Common Loon, Seney Wildlife Refuge, Upper Michigan; 5/27/07.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Jon! Coming to you from Val's blog.

Thanks for the update on one of our loons! It's nice to know what they get up to on their migratory trips. I'll be expecting to see him back at our cottage (Quebec) when we visit in a week or too. I'm sure he and his mate will be settled into their summer digs nicely by then. ;-)

~Julie

Anonymous said...

I was looking into see if there was loons in Northern Illinois, only because my family and I saw one at Rock Cut yesterday. I knew the call because I used to go up to the north woods when I was a kid. I was really surprised.

Anonymous said...

I saw some loons this morning on my man made lake in my neighorhood this morning!! There were four of them. Diving, popping back up. I've never seen a loon in IL my whole life, only in WI. I was excited to see them! I had to leave the house, but I'm hoping that they'll still be around when I get back so I can take some photos! A very odd sight to see in my home town :)

Finding Joy in the Journey said...

Is it common to see loons on Lake Petersburg Illinois? We have one here